An Oxford Transitional Justice Research Project

ICC Judges Order Lubanga Release

(CNN) July 15 2010 — Judges at the International Criminal Court have ordered the release of a Congolese militia chief who used child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s civil war. Sonia Robla, a court spokeswoman, said the decision was rendered Thursday after the prosecution refused to identify the identities of two witnesses during proceedings last week in the case of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo.

Lubanga has been accused of conscripting children under the age of 15 into the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo and “using them to participate actively in hostilities in Ituri, a district of the eastern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” The activity is for the period between September 2002 and August 2003. Last week, she said, judges asked the prosecution to release the names of two witnesses. But citing a threat to the security of the witnesses if they disclosed the identities, the prosecution refused. Robla said the judges then imposed a stay of proceedings and ordered Lubanga’s release Thursday.